Once Upon A Time
by AddictionHigh
Summary: Emily Prentiss is going through her Mother's attic and comes across a letter she had written to herself whilst still at school and reflects on her life.


**I know, I know... I promise I'll get around to updating my stories that are already half posted! Honestly though, currently I'm just trying to clean my laptop up a bit so it's a bit faster; meaning you get to read all my unposted stories! Excited? I am having to edit them a little bit; but as soon as it's done I will get around to updating stories. Don't ask me where this story came from: it's probably been sat on my laptop for years! Haha. Let me know what you think of it though. Reviews make me happy and keep me writing...**

_Dear Diary,_

_I dyed my hair today; it's black and spikey now. I doubt Mother will like it as it's hardly conventional but to be honest, I don't care. I don't care one little slither. It's Mother that wants me to always be politically correct; I couldn't give a rat's ass! Maybe one day she'll understand that. Ha. I doubt it. She's always been too interested in her political games to care much about me. Or Father. They divorced secretly last year. Obviously it's not a complete secret or else nobody would know about it; but they keep up the appearances of a happy family for the media. It's laughable really._

_This is my homework believe it or not. I don't really know why but we've been told to write a letter to ourselves; something about finding it when we're older and have our careers to look back on and see how much we've changed. I don't know. I don't really care. I'm just writing this to keep Ms. Lewis off my case. But it's nice to be able to rant. I've a checklist somewhere of everything I'm supposed to write in this letter, but I can't remember where I put it... I know I'm supposed to write about what it is I want to be when I'm older so that I can find this scrappy piece of paper in years to come and see how much my life has changed. I doubt I'll find it though; I'll probably throw it away in a couple of days. _

_I don't care what I am when I'm older though. So long as I'm not in politics I don't really mind. Politics make people dishonest. I want a family as well before I get too old. Maybe by the time I'm 40. With a husband and two children; a boy and a girl. In a house with a dog and a white picket fence. The "American Dream". I never thought I'd want that: it's so clichéd! But I do. I want a good paying job with a husband and two children. Eh, maybe it's not too clichéd if I want to be working. _

_Claire is back now from buying the groceries at the store which means I get to help cook dinner! Claire is more my mom than my own Mother: how fucked up is that?! Anyway, I best be off! Not that I'll ever write another letter to you again, diary._

_Bye._

Emily Prentiss couldn't help but laugh as she went through all her belongings in the attic of her Mother's house. The letter; the page having turned a slight yellow with age sat in the attic for so long; was the only thing she had found from when she was at school: no school tie; no yearbook; no old, tattered school book; just the single, solitary piece of paper with her letter she had written to herself in 8th Grade. She could just about remember having the black, pixie cut and she was right in her letter as well: Ambassador Prentiss _hated_ her hair and tried to get her to change it back. But Emily had stuck to her guns and came up with a compromise of only being allowed her hair spikey while at school or home and any time she was out as the Ambassador's Daughter it was conservative.

Weaving her hair through her long, dark brown tresses, Emily couldn't believe how much she had changed since she had written the letter. Sure, she was working now and she hadn't quite turned 40 yet: but with her job she doubted she'd ever find time to find a man and settle down with one child; let alone two! But then again, Emily had witnessed her best friend and colleague, Jennifer Jareau do exactly that.

JJ had met William LaMontagne Junior on a case in Louisiana about three years ago after Hurricane Katrina had hit and it had basically been love at first sight; or that's how it appeared to the rest of the team. JJ had flirted with the detective the whole case and had even given him her number just before they boarded the jet telling him that cell phones had never killed anyone. Little do the team know that Will had had to chase JJ for about 6 months before she had finally relented and started dating the southern detective.

Emily doubted she would ever meet anyone while at work though; she was too compartmentalised to allow anyone in while working. It had taken her the better part of a year to finally fully trust her team and they put their lives in each other's hands on almost a daily basis! She knew a lot of that was to do with growing up as an Ambassador's daughter though. She'd never stayed in one place for longer than a year until she had turned 16 and her mother finally decided to allow her to stay in Washington with a relative. Although she had enjoyed learning all the cultures of the world; moving so often had made it very difficult for Emily to make friends or learn to trust anybody. How could she when people were always coming but never staying in her life?

It didn't bother her though – the not having found somebody to spend the rest of her life with and have children with; if it did she would have changed her profession a long time ago. No. Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss of the Behavioural Analysis Unit within the FBI was quite content saving lives on a daily basis and catching serial killers, child molesters and rapists and generally making the world a better, and safer place to live.

"Maybe that was the point of the exercise" Emily thought to herself as she placed the stained piece of paper back in the box and closed the lid. "Maybe we don't always get what we always wanted in life; but it doesn't matter as long as we're happy."

**Ha! Bet I couldn't do that again if I tried: the actual story is 1,000 words exactly! :D Hope you enjoyed it! Longer ones to come, I promise... In fact, I'm working on one as soon as this is sent to Abby! (PS: Thanks for being such an awesome Beta.)**


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